History of Football

By Gabriel Palafox
Period 5
Mr.Miramontez
Physical Education 2

p.1

Table of Contents

pg.1 Table of contents

pg.2 History of Football
pg.3 Football Today
pg.4 Pe Reflection Conclusion

p.2
History of Football
It was in 1880 that the sport of football really began to take shape, thanks
almost exclusively to one person: Walter Camp. Camp was a student at Yale
from 1876 to 1882 and an avid athlete, playing on Yales football team from
77 until he left school in 82. He was also a fixture at the rules conventions,
finally gaining traction with his ideas in 1880. It was then that the rules
committee began to adopt his rule changes, which included establishing the
line of scrimmage, the exchange between a quarterback and a center,
awarding six points for a touchdown and three points for a field goal though
it would take years to come to those exact numbers, lowering the number of
players to 11 a side and the concept of set plays. Even after Camp left Yale
as a student, he continued to coach the team and be a regular presence at
every rules convention held until his death.

The early history of football is largely written in the college ranks;

innovations, rules and popularity belonged to schools in the U.S., as far as
football was concerned. However, that does not mean that professional
football did not exist. Outside of colleges, the game of football was played by
athletic clubs; by the 1880s, most athletic clubs in America had a team
playing football. However, these teams were supposed to be amateur
squads, without paid players. Of course, with competitive fires serving as
fuel, these teams often found ways around that. From the earliest games
played, athletic clubs found ways to acquire the best players: jobs were
found for star players and trophies and watches were awarded to players
after games and then pawned by the players. But the first evidence of
someone simply paid money just to play a football game came on November
12, 1892. The Allegheny Athletic Association played the Pittsburgh Athletic
Club in Pittsburgh, and William Heffelfinger was paid $500 by the AAA to play
in todays money, thats equal to over $12,000. In modern terms, thats not a
bad salary. The base salary for a rookie in the National Football League in
2009 was $310,000; over a 16-game season, that comes out to just over
$19,000 per game. While the PAC cried foul, they had in fact reportedly
offered Heffelfinger $250 a few days earlier to play in the game. Professional
football was truly born.

p.3
Football Today
National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league
consisting of 32 teams, divided equally between the National Football
Conference (NFC) and the American Football Conference (AFC). The NFL is
one of the four major professional sports leagues in North America, and the
highest professional level of American football in the world. The NFL's 17week regular season runs from the week after Labor Day to the week after
Christmas, with each team playing sixteen games and having one bye week.
Following the conclusion of the regular season, six teams from each
conference four division winners and two wild card teams advance to the

playoffs, a single-elimination tournament culminating in the Super Bowl,

played between the champions of the NFC and AFC.

p.4
Pe Reflection
What I will take from Pe over this past year is the fact of life if you respect
people they will respect you. I have quite enjoyed this year even though I
started it off bad Ive made many friends too that have helped me
understand that even though somethings hard you should always strive for it
like the mile. Even when I tried so hard I still failed but through the constant
nagging of omar I tried and past the mile which in return boosted my grade

and self confidence. This class really taught me about team work too by the
fact that if the class didn't work together we would all suffer the
consequences so everyone said good morning no one left classes early
ditched. This helped us all understand how everyone should get along even if
you have different perspectives on life. The thing that I most enjoyed during
this year was playing soccer it was the most fun Ive had running back and
forth ever. Soccer is fun because all your doing is running but you don't think
about that so you get the exercise without the fuss. It was also the fact that
when pe was over you felt so much better you felt like you worked out a little
and it was lunch right after. Another thing I learned about this year in pe was
how to control what you eat and what eat responsibly. These are the things I
have valued over the course of this year thanks for a great year.